Hansel & Gretel

7:30 p.m. May 28, 2021Available on demand through June 27, 2021

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA PRESENTS

Music by Engelbert Humperdinck Libretto by Adelheid Wette English Version by Sir David Pountney

Hansel & Gretel

Hansel and Gretel has a musical score that is, without hyperbole, one of the two or three most ravishingly beautiful in the history of music. One never tires of hearing it or performing it; I could happily conduct it every day.” —HGO Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers

BackgroundHansel and Gretel is an opera in the late German Romantic tradition, premiering in Weimar in December 1893. The composer is Engelbert Humperdinck with a libretto by Adelheid Wette, his sister. She origi-nally asked him to set to music some poems she had written based on the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale of the same name, but the poems and songs were eventually turned into an opera.

The StoryHansel and Gretel, the children of a poor broom-maker, are sent into the forest to pick strawberries by their mother, Gertrude. Their father, Peter, comes home with a feast for the family. When he learns the children are in the forest, he worriedly tells Gertrude about the evil Witch who lures children with sweets and bakes them into ginger-bread. They leave to find the children.

Hansel and Gretel play in the forest as they look for strawberries. They get hungry and eat them, and the sun begins to go down. As it gets darker, the scared children hear a chorus of echoes before the Sandman walks out of the forest. He puts them to sleep as they sing their evening prayers.

The Dew Fairy wakes up the children with sprinkles of dew. Hansel and Gretel notice a gingerbread house surrounded by a fence of gingerbread children. As they take bites of frosting and candy, the Witch freezes them with a magic wand. But the children manage to escape and push the Witch into the oven.

The gingerbread figures around them turn back into real kids as Peter and Gertrude arrive and embrace their children. They all see that the Witch has been baked into gingerbread in her own oven.

Fun FactBecause Hansel and Gretel premiered in Weimar shortly before Christmas, it most often is performed around the holiday season, which is an interesting bit of history considering that it tells the story, as Maestro Summers notes, of “a cannibalistic witch who is outsmarted and killed by two children she is trying to cook.”

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Hansel & Gretel

CastGretel Raven McMillon, Brenda Harvey-Traylor Fellow † Hansel Sun-Ly Pierce, Charlene and Chuck Nickson/ Tracy Maddox and John Serpe Fellow † Gertrude Lindsay Kate Brown, Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover / Lynn Gissel Fellow † Peter Blake Denson, Drs. Elizabeth Grimm and Jack Roth/ Carolyn Levy/Gloria Portela and Dick Evans Fellow † Sandman / Dew Fairy Elena Villalón, Dian and Harlan Stai Fellow † The Witch Richard Trey Smagur ‡

† Houston Grand Opera Studio artist ‡ Former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist

Creative TeamConductor Patrick Summers, Margaret Alkek Williams Chair Director Lileana Blain-Cruz * Visual Design and Original Art Hannah Wasileski * Costume and Angel Montana Levi Blanco * Puppet Designer Chorus Master Richard Bado, Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Master Chair ‡ Musical Preparation Peter Pasztor ‡, Alex Munger, Saúl and Ursula Balagura/ Trey Yates Fellow † Assistant Director Katrina Bachus Projected Titles Jeremy Johnson

* Houston Grand Opera debut † Houston Grand Opera Studio artist ‡ Former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist

CreditsDirector of Photography Ben Doyle Producer Daniel James Producer  Dale Edwards Assistant Producer Ciara Ayala Audio Producer Ryan Edwards Audio Producer Shannon Smith Lighting Designer Michael James Clark Stage Manager Annie Wheeler Assistant Stage Manager Meg Edwards Lead Post-Production Hannah Wasileski Lead Editor Paul Lieber Lead Animator Gabriel Aronson Lead Compositor Elizabeth Mak Lead Illustrator Jayoung Yoon Lead Assets Yi Zhao Properties Design Director Megan Head of Costumes Norma Cortez Head of Wigs and Makeup Dotti Staker

The entire staff of HGO contributed to the success of this production. For a full listing of the company’s staff, please visit HGO.org/about-us/people.

Performing artists, stage directors, and choreographers are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, the union for opera profes-sionals in the United States.

Designers and assistant designers are represented by United Scenic Artists, IATSE, Local USA-829.

Orchestral musicians are represented by the Houston Professional Musicians Association, Local #65-699, American Federation of Musicians.

Stage crew personnel provided by IATSE, Local #51.

Wardrobe personnel provided by Theatrical Wardrobe Union, Local #896.

Grand Underwriter

Underwriter Michaela Greenan and Nicholas Greenan  M. David Lowe and Nana Booker / Booker • Lowe Gallery 

Video Production

Streaming Partner

Produced in association with Austin Opera

Hansel & Gretel

HGO CHORUS Richard Bado Chorus Master Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Master Chair Frankie Hickman Julie Hoeltzel Lindsay Lymer Kathy Manley Katherine McDaniel Kendall Reimer Hannah Roberts Kaitlyn Stavinoha

CHILDREN Lydia Jane Barnett Shelby Brown Audrey “Alex” Cañas Sofia Esphahani Elizabeth Hsu Maria Lynnae Jesko Sophie Tang

Hansel & Gretel

HGO ORCHESTRA Patrick Summers Artistic and Music Director Margaret Alkek Williams Chair

VIOLIN Denise Tarrant*, Concertmaster Chloe Kim*, Assistant Concertmaster Natalie Gaynor*, Principal, Second Violin Carrie Kauk†, Assistant Principal Second Violin Hae-a Lee-Barnes* Miriam Belyatsky* Anabel Detrick† Rasa Kalesnykaite* Chavdar Parashkevov*, Acting Assistant Principal Second Violin Mary Reed† Erica Robinson* Linda Sanders* Oleg Sulyga* Sylvia VerMeulen† Melissa Williams† Mila Neal

VIOLA Eliseo Rene Salazar*, Principal Lorento Golofeev*, Acting Principal Gayle Garcia-Shepard*, Acting Assistant Principal Erika Lawson† Suzanne LeFevre† Dawson White*

CELLO Barrett Sills*, Principal Erika Johnson*, Assistant Principal Ariana Nelson† Wendy Smith-Butler† Steven Wiggs*

DOUBLE BASS Dennis Whittaker†, Principal Erik Gronfor†, Assistant Principal Carla Clark, Acting Assistant Principal* Donald Howey, Acting Principal

FLUTE Henry Williford*, Acting Principal Flute

OBOE Elizabeth Priestly Siffert*, Principal Mayu Isom†

Anne Leek, Acting Principal

CLARINET Sean Krissman*, Principal Eric Chi*

BASSOON Amanda Swain*, Principal Michael Allard*, Acting Principal

FRENCH HORN Sarah Cranston†, Principal Kimberly Penrod Minson* Spencer Park*, Acting Principal Kevin McIntyre Gavin Reed

TRUMPET Tetsuya Lawson*, Principal Randal Adams*

TROMBONE Thomas Hulten†, Principal Mark Holley*, Acting Principal

TUBA Mark Barton†, Principal

HARP Joan Eidman*, Principal

TIMPANI Alison Chang*, Principal

PERCUSSION Richard Brown*, Principal Christina Carroll

CUCKOO Daniel James

ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL MANAGER Richard Brown*

* = Core Member † = Core Member on leave for this production

Hansel & Gretel

Who's WhoSIR DAVID POUNTNEY(ENGLAND) ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Sir David Pountney was born in Oxford and studied at St John’s College, Cambridge. In a career spanning over 45 years he has

been Director of Productions at Scottish Opera and English National Opera, Intendant of the Bregenzer Festspiele, and Artistic Director of Welsh National Opera from 2011-2019. He has directed a number of operas for HGO, including the world premiere of Bilby’s Doll (1976), the North American premiere of The Passenger (2014), and The Passenger at Lincoln Center Festival (2014). Pountney’s pioneering productions have won him Janáček and Martinů medals and Olivier Awards, while his original librettos have been set to music by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Elena Langer. He has translated librettos into English from Russian, Czech, German, and Italian. Previously made a CBE, Pountney was knighted for services to opera in 2019. He has also been decorated with civilian honors by Austria, Poland, and France. Recent engagements include serving as librettist for A Feast in the Time of Plague (Grange Park Opera); director for Les vêpres siciliennes, The Cunning Little Vixen, War and Peace (WNO); and a new production of The Ring (Lyric Opera of Chicago), which was canceled due to COVID-19.

PATRICK SUMMERS (UNITED STATES) Margaret Alkek Williams Chair

CONDUCTOR

Patrick Summers was named artistic and music director of HGO in 2011 after having

served as the company’s music director since 1998. Some highlights of his work at HGO include conducting the company’s first-ever complete cycle of Wagner’s Ring and its first performances of the Verdi Requiem; collaborating on the world premieres of Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix, André Previn’s Brief Encounter, Christopher Theofanidis’s The Refuge, Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life, The End of the Affair, and Three Decembers, Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree and Prince of Players, and Tod Machover’s Resurrection; leading the American premiere of Weinberg’s Holocaust opera The Passenger, both at HGO and on tour to the Lincoln Center Festival; and nurturing the careers of such artists as Christine Goerke, Ailyn Perez, Joyce DiDonato, Ana María Martínez, Ryan McKinny, Tamara Wilson, Albina Shagimuratova, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Norman Reinhardt, Jamie Barton, and Dimitri Pittas. Maestro Summers has enjoyed a long association with San Francisco Opera (SFO) and was honored in 2015 with the San Francisco Opera Medal. His work with SFO includes conducting Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, which was recorded and telecast on PBS’s Great Performances. In 2017, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Indiana University.

He was recently named artistic director of the Aspen Music Festival’s opera program alongside Renée Fleming. During the 2019–20 season at HGO, he conducted Saul and Aida. Other recent engage-ments included Dead Man Walking at the Israeli Opera.

LILEANA BLAIN-CRUZ(UNITED STATES) DIRECTOR

Lileana Blain-Cruz is a director from New York City and Miami. Recent projects include: Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater

Company), Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA); Girls (Yale Repertory Theater); Marys Seacole (LCT3, Obie Award); Faust (Opera Omaha); Fabulation, Or the Reeducation of Undine (Signature Theatre); Thunderbodies and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Soho Rep.); The House That Will Not Stand and Red Speedo (New York Theatre Workshop); Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum/CTG); Pipeline (Lincoln Center); The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre, Obie Award); Henry IV, Part One and Much Ado About Nothing (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Bluest Eye (The Guthrie); War (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater and Yale Rep.); Salome (JACK); Hollow Roots (The Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater). Upcoming projects include: Dreaming Zenzile (St. Louis Rep) and The Listeners (Opera Norway). Blain-Cruz was named a 2018 United States Artists Fellow and a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist. Currently the resident director of Lincoln Center Theater, she is a graduate of Princeton and received her Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the Yale School of Drama.

HANNAH WASILESKI(UNITED STATES/GERMANY) VISUAL DESIGN AND ORIGINAL ART

Hannah Wasileski is a visual artist and projection designer who combines hand-made and digital processes to create animations,

video art, and environmental projections for opera, theater, instal-lations, and concerts. She also collaborates with composers and musicians to make music videos. Her stage and installation works have been shown in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and have received numerous awards, including a Lucille Lortel, a Henry Hewes, and an Obie. Recent designs include Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company), Fires in the Mirror, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre), 18 Stanzas Sung to a Tatar Reed Whistle (FiveMyles), The Magic Flute (Staatsoper Berlin), Lohengrin (Wagner’s Bayreuth Festival), Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theater), Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum), Sleep (BAM), La Voix Humaine (National Sawdust), A Proust Sonata (Wortham Center), Angel’s Bone (Prototype Festival), The Wreckers (Bard SummerScape Opera), and The World is Round (BAM). She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music

Hansel & Gretel

and Visual Art from the University of Brighton, and her Master of Fine Arts in Design from the Yale School of Drama.

MONTANA LEVI BLANCO(UNITED STATES) COSTUME AND ANGEL PUPPET DESIGNER

Montana Levi Blanco is a costume designer from Albuquerque, New Mexico. His grand-mother, a lampshade artisan, inspired an early

love of fabric, color, and beauty. Blanco is a graduate of the Oberlin College & Conservatory of Music, Brown University, and the Yale School of Drama. Prior to attending Yale, he was the Robert L. Tobin Curatorial Fellow at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. Blanco is the recipient of a Special Drama Desk, the Lucille Lortel, two Henry Hewes, and two Obie awards. 

RICHARD BADO(UNITED STATES)The Sarah and Ernest Butler Chorus Master Chair

CHORUS MASTER

HGO Studio alumnus Richard Bado is director of artistic operations and chorus master at HGO. He made his professional conducting debut in 1989 leading HGO’s acclaimed production of Show Boat at the newly restored Cairo Opera House in Egypt. Since then, he has conducted for Houston Ballet, La Scala, Opéra national de Paris, New York City Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, Tulsa Opera, the Russian National Orchestra, the Florida Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, and Wolf Trap Opera. With HGO, he has conducted Carousel (2016) and Robert Wilson’s production of Four Saints in Three Acts at the Edinburgh Festival (1996), as well as this spring’s singalong, My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music. During the HGO Digital season he has performed the role of Butler in Vinkensport and accompanied Reginald Smith, Jr., Jack Swanson, and Nicole Heaston for their Live from The Cullen recitals. An accomplished pianist, Bado appears regularly with Renée Fleming in recital. He has also played for Cecilia Bartoli, Frederica von Stade, Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Marcello Giordani, Ramón Vargas, Samuel Ramey, Jamie Barton, Ryan McKinny, and Nathan Gunn. Bado holds music degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where he received the 2000 Alumni Achievement Award, and West Virginia University; he also studied advanced choral conducting with Robert Shaw. He has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. For 12 years, he was the director of the opera studies program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He has served on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Dolora Zajick Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, the International Vocal School in Moscow, and the Texas Music Festival, and has served on the music staffs of the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, the Bolshoi Opera Young Artist Program, Opera Australia, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Utah

Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. He regularly judges for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He received HGO’s Silver Rose Award in 2013 in celebration of his 25th year as chorus master.

SUN-LY PIERCE (UNITED STATES) Charlene and Chuck Nickson/Tracy Maddox and John Serpe Fellow

MEZZO-SOPRANO—HANSEL

Originally from Clinton, New York, Chinese American mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce is a first-year HGO Studio artist and the first prize winner in HGO’s 2020 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. This season with HGO she also appeared as Liesl in My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music. Pierce completed the graduate vocal arts program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Music. As a winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition, Pierce was set to perform on an international recital tour with pianist Chien-Lin Lu featuring the premiere of a new song cycle by two-time Grammy Award–winning composer Jennifer Higdon, which was canceled due to COVID-19. In the fall of 2019, Pierce joined the Broad Street Orchestra as Dorinda in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. She will return to the Music Academy of the West this summer as 2021 Vocal Fellow.

RAVEN MCMILLON (UNITED STATES)Brenda Harvey-Traylor Fellow

SOPRANO—GRETEL

First-year HGO Studio artist Raven McMillon was recently recognized as a 2021 Grand

Finals Winner in the Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. During the HGO Digital season, McMillon also performed the roles of Rona Richards in The Impresario and Peter in The Making of The Snowy Day, an Opera for All. She also featured in the HGO Digital concert Giving Voice and performed as Sister Margaretta in HGO’s My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music. McMillon received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance at Carnegie Mellon University and completed her graduate degree at the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music (CCM). Her opera credits include Adele in Die Fledermaus; the title role in Goldie B. Locks and the Three Singing Bears; Linfea in La Calisto; and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro. In addition to her opera credits, McMillon has also workshopped new roles such as Mary in Chiao’s The Secret Codes of Mary Bowser and Lucy in Picker’s Awakenings. Her recent roles included La Princesse in L’enfant et les sortilèges with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte at CCM in the summer of 2020, which were canceled due to COVID-19. This summer she will perform the role of Frasquita in Carmen with Cincinnati Opera.

Hansel & Gretel

RICHARD TREY SMAGUR(UNITED STATES) TENOR—THE WITCH

American tenor Richard Trey Smagur is the winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2017 and a former

member of the HGO Studio. In the 2020-21 season, he joins Atlanta Opera as Don José in the world premiere of The Threepenny Carmen, directed by Tomer Zvulun. Previously scheduled engage-ments include house and role debuts at Canadian Opera Company as Tichon in Káťa Kabanová and at Opera Philadelphia as Macduff in Macbeth, as well as performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with both the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons include his role debut as Števa in David Alden’s production of Jenůfa at Santa Fe Opera, his role debut as Narraboth in Salome in concert with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Fabio Luisi, and a performance of Schumann’s Dichterliebe at Houston Symphony’s Schumann Festival. His past roles at HGO include the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman, Parpignol in La bohème, Gastone de Letorières in La traviata, Young Servant in Elektra, and Count Almaviva in outdoor performances of The Barber of Seville. A native of Clarkesville, Georgia, Smagur holds a Performer’s Diploma from Indiana University and Bachelor of Music degree from Shorter College. He was a fellow at the Steans Music Institute at Ravinia Music Festival.

LINDSAY KATE BROWN (UNITED STATES)Mr. and Mrs. James W. Crownover / Lynn Gissel Fellow

MEZZO-SOPRANO—GERTRUDE

Third-year HGO Studio artist Lindsay Kate Brown also performed as Sister Berthe in My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music with HGO this season. Previously at HGO, Brown sang Giovanna in Rigoletto and was cast as Second Lady in The Magic Flute (COVID-19 cancellation). She was the third prize winner in HGO’s 2018 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. Last year Brown won first place in the Upper Midwest Region of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and competed in the national Grand Finals. She earned an Artist Diploma at Rice University and made her professional debut with Tri-Cities Opera in 2014. In summer 2018, she was a young artist at Des Moines Metro Opera, where she reprised the role of Ma Moss in Copland’s The Tender Land and covered the role of Ježibaba in Dvořák’s Rusalka. In 2019 she sang the role of the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos with Wolf Trap Opera. She will join Santa Fe Opera this summer as an apprentice artist, performing the role of Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

BLAKE DENSON(UNITED STATES)Drs. Elizabeth Grimm and Jack Roth/Carolyn Levy/Gloria Portela and Dick Evans Fellow

BARITONE—PETER

First-year HGO Studio artist Blake Denson also appeared in HGO Digital productions Giving Voice and Suite Española: Explorando Iberia this season. Denson was a Grand Finals winner in the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and is a 2018 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy (YAVA). He obtained his Bachelor of Music in voice degree from the University of Kentucky School of Music and recently completed his Master of Music degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Denson was a studio artist at Wolf Trap Opera in 2018 and was set to return to Wolf Trap Opera for a second season in the summer of 2020 to perform the Commander and cover the title role in Eugene Onegin, as well as cover the role of Marcello in La bohème, but those productions were canceled due to COVID-19.

ELENA VILLALÓN(UNITED STATES)Dian and Harlan Stai Fellow

SOPRANO—SANDMAN/DEW FAIRY

Second-year HGO Studio artist Elena Villalón also performed the roles of Farinelli’s Trainer in

Vinkensport and Amy in The Making of The Snowy Day, an Opera for All during the HGO Digital season. Previous HGO roles include Page in Rigoletto; Woman in selected performances of the world premiere of El Milagro del Recuerdo/The Miracle of Remembering; and Inez in La favorite. Villalón was the Audience Choice Award winner in HGO’s 2019 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, and a Grand Finals winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music (CCM), has been a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, and is an alumna of HGO’s 2018 Young Artist Vocal Academy. In summer 2019, she performed Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist and returned to the Tanglewood Music Center as a soprano fellow. In the summer of 2020, she was set to make her Santa Fe Opera debut as First Wood Sprite in Rusalka, but this was canceled due to COVID-19. She will return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis this summer as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi.